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Why the hostility towards plectrum ?

#41
i don't get angry about picks just haven't used one in twenty years
flesh on steel
found the same true for my taste in playing guitar also(mostly).
If there's a pick in my hand, I can't feel the string and I think playing is a feel thing
 
#45
theshadow2001 said:
Because otherwise it becomes a subsitute for correct technique and a hinderance to learning the instrument fully not just another tool to use.
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Which "correct" technique? Two fingers? Three fingers? Four fingers? Slap? Tapping? Rasgueado? Double Thumb? I don't know how you think playing with a pick is a substitute when there are so many variations on playing without one. The tone you get from a plectrum varies depending on the type of plectrum and the application of it. To be honest and with all due respect it is really only inexperienced people that hold this argument that plectrum is inferior. Just watch this guy's inferior technique and horrible tone, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq-TT0i5uTc

spindizzy said:
So my habit of taking off my shoe and playing my bass with that is completely out? :eyebrow:

Spin
Click to expand...

We had better tell Tony Levin to take those things off his fingers too.
 
#50
JAUQO III-X said:
Check out my inferior technique and horrible tone. Obviously I'm losing my mind :) Ah the things one can do with a pick.


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Haha you totally demystified what you are doing there for me. I was under the impression that you were doing a kind of "tremello" type of thing with one of your fingers. Which is what I have been developing. I never noticed you using the pick at all. Still a cool thing though.
 
#51
capnsandwich said:
Then you're not a real bassist!!!:D:hiding::D
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:)


mutedeity said:
Haha you totally demystified what you are doing there for me. I was under the impression that you were doing a kind of "tremello" type of thing with one of your fingers. Which is what I have been developing. I never noticed you using the pick at all. Still a cool thing though.
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The recording isn't the best. Live the pick really cuts through much clearer.
 
#52
JEDI BASS said:
+1.... and I used to be one of the ignorant ones when I was young and stupid. Now, I wish I wasn't too old and too busy to practice/learn how to play with a pick. Funny, how when you think you know it all.....that's when you're the dumbest!
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yep. i looked down on pick players until just recently... picks are fine, some people are ignorant, i was one of them. don't take it too hard when people say bad things about pick players, be the bigger person. sometimes the pick-bashers just don't know any better.

i still play primarily with my fingers though:smug:
 
#53
mutedeity said:
Which "correct" technique? Two fingers? Three fingers? Four fingers? Slap? Tapping? Rasgueado? Double Thumb? I don't know how you think playing with a pick is a substitute when there are so many variations on playing without one. The tone you get from a plectrum varies depending on the type of plectrum and the application of it. To be honest and with all due respect it is really only inexperienced people that hold this argument that plectrum is inferior. Just watch this guy's inferior technique and horrible tone,



We had better tell Tony Levin to take those things off his fingers too.
Click to expand...


Dear god has everyone lost the ability to read? The plec is a legitimate tool if it gives what your looking for. Is this the third time I've posted a variation of that comment? I also think it can be an all too easy fall back tool to replace learning how to use the fingers. Which in my opinion has broader application across a wider range of music than you would with solely using a plec. If I came to you for lessons and said I want to start bass I want to eventually play wide range of music but all I want to learn how to do is tap, no finger style no plecs no slapping nothing just tapping. Are you telling me that you wouldn't tell me to reconsider and show me that using fingers and plecs and all the other techniques can be just as useful if not more so than learning tapping on its own?

Another example. After a gig that my band played with another the bass player talked to me and said that he liked my playing and mentioned that I used my fingers. He told me that he had only been playing a year. He was a good musician but had the style of a guitarist (not that his playing was bad, quite the opposite in fact) and I'm sure that was his background. He used a plec exclusively. To me he was using the plec as a fall back point to make it easier for him to transition to bass. Not because it suited the song or otherwise

I haven't been playing as a long as you but I am no means inexperienced. I've been playing bass for 8 years in various bands with a wide range of gigs and guitar for a couple of years before that.

I don't use plec's because I really don't like the clacky clacky sound or attack. I think it takes from the sound of the instrument. Loads of people use them and it floats their boat so thats great. I still don't like them.

Does Dominique use one exclusively? No? Didn't think so. Does he play with one because its a crutch? No? didn't think so.

With all due respect posts like yours are usually made by people who see one comment get on their high horse and forget to read the rest of the thread
 
#55
chriscrob said:
I started as a guitarist...but i'm trying to become a real bassist so cut me some slack.

In most situations I prefer the sound of fingers. I would use fingers in most situations. Sometimes (like on the song "Salvation is Here" by Hillsong) I can't get the speed I need with fingers. I'm working on getting my fingers consistently faster but a plectrum really does help if you're playing a song that requires 16th notes...at least not starting out.

I'll get that solo with fingers someday...until then i'll unashamedly use a pick. : )
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yep, me too! i was (am) a guitarist so i often feel "at home" using a pick. what i've been trying to do is set a metronome up at a certain beat and just play scales to the click using my fingers... but, often, its jut easier to pick up a pick (is that redundant? :eyebrow:)! i love the sound of the finger on string though - very solid and round, warm and ... meaty - i guess thats a way to describe it.
i've also been trying to incorporate my classical/finger style guitar playing into the low end world of bass in hopes of getting better - so far so good!
thanks for letting me rant!
END (El Nadador Del)
 
#57
My only problem with pick playing is that I'm not as good at it as with my fingers! Sometimes I'll want to pull pick out for a song, but I can't, since the lines I've come up with are too hard. Need more practice!!


Actually...I've always felt the main problem with pick playing is simply the generic sound many bassists get from a pick.

Imo, generic/basic finger sound >> generic/basic pick sound.

I saw a band a while ago who had a great bass player (Fender J with a pick), but his sound was so boring and generic! Ugh!
 
#60
I started playing with a pick and then one day I decided not to. However, I should start doing it again, because I believe it's good to know a variety of playing styles. I will never understand what's so wrong about any way anybody plays a bass; pick, pluck, slap, tap, bow, screwdriver, whatever. Just do whatcha do!
 

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